A Vote for Gary Johnson (or, Jill Stein) is a Vote for Trump

Face the Nation and the other Sunday Talking Heads news commentary shows talked about the softening of the Obama coalition, the daily NY Times “percentage” in August had Hillary ahead 90-10, now the “poll” gives Hillary a 75-25 lead; whatever that means.

The Nate Silver fivethirtyeight blog,”Chance of Winning,” has Hillary: 61.1% and Trump 38.8% and Gary Johnson at 8% with Hillary winning the electoral votes narrowly.

The next big moment will be the September 26th presidential debate; it will grab the attention of the American public. The Hillary erosion is among the millennials, the younger voters, young Afro-American males and the left leaning Bernie voters are all lukewarm on Hillary.

I was chatting with a nineteen year old – he had taken a leave from his college and worked for Bernie full time, and, told me he was voting for Gary Johnson.

“Oh, you’re voting for Trump.”

“No, I’m voting for Gary Johnson.”

“No, you’re voting for Trump.”

I was “parent-like” and a little harsh. “Your candidate lost, you’re angry and you’re letting your ego drive your vote – you want to ‘get even’ with Hillary so you’re voting for Trump.” He insisted he was voting for Johnson. “You’re pulling the Johnson lever (probably should have said bubbling in the Johnson box), you’re actually voting for Trump – be honest – vote for Trump.” He told me he could never vote for Trump, I insisted he was voting for Trump. Hopefully I planted a seed of doubt.

Diane Ravitch has written a number of blogs explaining why she is voting for Hillary and why it is so important. Her loyalist supporters immediately commented, they voting for Johnson or Stein.

If, heavens forbid, the networks declare Trump a winner early on the morning of November 9th stock market numbers will tumble. The stock market operates 24/7 and even before the opening bell the Dow-Jones will dive and continue to dive – 1,000, 2,000, who knows, probably a dive never seen before. Stock markets fear uncertainty, fear instability, and in times of uncertainty and instability investors move their assets in the safest class of investments. A stock market spiraling downward drags down all boats. Trump would blame Obama, who, as a lame-duck president would have limited options. The 2008 economic recession could easily be child’s play compared to what awaits us. Pensions, Medicare, all in jeopardy.

Are these scare tactics or is this scenario a possibility?

This is a once in a lifetime election – we’ve never had a candidate “endorsed” by the Klu Klux Klan and Nazi organizations who accepts their support. We’ve never had a candidate who threatens to incarcerate a religious group. Trump supporters, and, yes, I speak with Trump voters, brush aside Trump’s bizarre pronouncements.

Back in 1972, after a bitterly contested primary election McGovern won the Democratic nomination. Many mainstream Democrats did not vote for McGovern, many crossed over and voted for Nixon. Nixon won 48 states. They weren’t Republicans, they were Hubert Humphrey supporters; the heart of the Democratic Party opposed the war in Vietnam and flocked to the polls across the nation to express their displeasure in the war by voting for McGovern. The mainstream Democrats were overwhelmed by the passion of the anti-war voters, and, expressed their frustration and anger by refusing to vote for the McGovern, the Democratic candidate.

Traditional Democratic voters felt the party had been hijacked by the anti-war faction, and, couldn’t bring themselves to go to the polls and support the anti-war McGovern.

We are facing a similar situation – Bernie voters cannot bring themselves to vote for Hillary. There is no issue similar to 1972. The positions of both Hillary and Bernie are quite similar. Bernie voters argue the election was stolen due to the inappropriate support of Hillary by the Democratic National Committee (DNC), as well as the impossible to define issue of “trust.”

Back in the days of school board elections I supported slates of candidates. Elections are about winning, and winning in the proportional representation style election required putting together slates. We didn’t always agree on all issues, we agreed on enough issues to paste together coalitions that assured we would win enough seats for a majority on the Board.

There is an opportunity to not only win the White House but to take over the Senate and erode the Republican majority in the House; an opportunity to actually pass progressive legislation.

It might be unkind; too many anti-Hillary voters are simply selfish and blind. Yes, your candidate might not prevail in a primary; we move on and work for the winner of the primary within our party. To sulk, to stay on the sidelines simply boosts the other side – in this election the “other side” could drag our nation into a catastrophic depression or worse.

8 responses to “A Vote for Gary Johnson (or, Jill Stein) is a Vote for Trump”

There’s also Bush vs Gore in 2000. Some argue that Ralph Nader caused the election to go to Bush who won the Electoral College but not the popular vote. Almost 3 million Americans voted for Nader who didn’t pick up even 1 electoral vote.

And the U.S. ended up with G. W. Bush as president, three global wars: war on terror, a war in Iraq based on WMD lies, a war that led to the rise of Al Qaeda across the Middle East and then ISIS. Then there was the failed war in Afghanistan because Bush focused on messing up the war in Iraq making one mistake after another. Afghanistan was neglected and is another mess today that the GOP blames on Obama.

The GOP was blaming Obama for the G. W. Bush 2007=08 glo0bal financial crises that lost 9 million Americans their jobs and 5 million famlies their homes.

The GOP has blamed Obama for TARP, the $750 billion bail out of the banks by President G. W. Bush who was the one that signed and launched TARP.

How much was lost from G. W. Bush’s global financial crises? $15 Trillion

Why does Donald Trump lie, lie and lie some more, because he learned from the GOP to lie repeatedly because it works.

How many votes did Gore lose Florida by? 537 votes and that was only because the Supreme Court stopped the recount before it was done.

How many votes did Nader pick up in Florida that would have mostly gone to Gore? 97,421 votes.

How many people have died because of the war Bush started in Iraq based on lies of WMD?

Reports vary but it is between 100k and 1 million.

Then there are more than 4 million refugees from Iraq alone. If there had not been a war in Iraq, Al Qaeda and ISIS would have never spread as they did casing the war on terror to expand and continue.

I shudder at the thought of what damage Donald Trump would do to the world. I think it would pale in comparison to what G. W. Bush caused.

History shows us that some of the fools keep repeating the same mistakes and if Trump wins because of fools that vote for Johnson, then history will repeat again with Donald Trump in the White House, but this time it will be much worse than what G. W. Bush caused.

We don’t have better Principals, because the old system of nepotism and cronyism that has always influenced their selections is still very much alive and embedded in the DNA of the Dep’t of Education modus operandi. What good are Renewal Schools, when incompetents are put in the Principal’s chair, because some community bigwig says so. To compound matters under this Mayor and his Chancellor, we see time and again, phony “lines in the sand’ for tyrannical Principals, incompetent ones, corrupt ones, and just plain unqualified ones.

I would reccomend a system that still gives communittes the right to nominate individuals for their principal vacancies. But I would require that those nominees ( and there should be a finishing list of 2 finalists) be required to make their case before The Chancellor to pass final muster. I would then require The Chancellor’s reviewing team to make the final determination, in an open report citing the factors that guided their decision.

I wonder how anyone can even consider voting for Trump. He lies, Sometimes he takes it back, but he never apologizes. He’ll “make America great again”. It’s never, not been great. How he plans to accomplish this nebulous goal is unexplained. Most of his “promises” are just empty words. He doesn’t submit his tax returns. Any intelligent person will realize, he has something to hide. He talks about improving education. His history with Trump University is terrible. He bought someone out so that the trial against him did not move forward to expose the lies he proposed for the students who were bilked into a worthless “education”. It wan an education in getting bilked out of money.
For me, my children and grandchildren, please vote for Hillary Clinton. She may not be perfect. She IS the only gown up running for President at this time. She will not embarrass us on the world stage and she has government and political experience.Trump has NONE,

You wrote, “Any intelligent person will realize …,” unfortunately we face a critical shortage of “intelligent persons.” Trump has awakened the worst in all of us, he has connected with the dark side, the racism, the insecurity, the fear and the desperate search for some sort of messiah. For the evangelicals, a religious leader, for others, Trump, if we want to understand the attraction of Hitler in the 30s in the most well-educated nation in Europe we see it once again …. hopefully sanity will prevail.

“In terms of demographics, Trump’s supporters are a bit older, less educated and earn less than the averse Republican. Slightly over half are women. About half are between 45 and 64 years of age, with another 34 percent over 65 years old and less than 2 percent younger than 30. One half of his voters have a high school education or less, compared to 19 percent with colelge or post-graduate degree. Slightly over a third of his supporters earn less than $50,000 per year, while11 percent earn over 100,000 per year.”

Ignorance and bias plays a big factor in the decisions these mostly under educated whites are making when it comes to Trump. They are obviously easy to fool and are unwilling or too lazy to fact check The Donald’s vast library of lies.

I could provide an exhaustive set of reasons why Trump and Clinton are both unconscionable choices. On the latter’s murderous record in Haiti, Honduras, Iraq, Libya, Palestine, and Syria I’ve written: “In Clinton we have an individual so bellicose, so prone to fetishizing violence, and so willing to mete out death and destruction, that they’ve garnered the endorsement of some of the world’s most notorious war criminals. Clinton is supported by Henry Kissinger, Madeleine Albright, and John Negroponte, butchers all. In a just world the four of them would be frog-marched in shackles to the dock at The Hague.”

For these, and many other reasons, I, as a person of conscience, who finds both candidates beyond deplorable — Trump for his rhetoric, Clinton for her actions — will vote third party, again.

For many of us on the left, this is NOT a protest vote. I voted for the Honorable Dr. Cynthia McKinney in 2008, Dr. Jill Stein in 2012, and will vote for Dr. Stein again in this upcoming election. I support feminism, not imperialism, nativism, racism, millitarism, and neoliberalism.